1. Introduction

Computer Gaming is something that has been in existence from
the very early days of computers. One of the earliest games ever
was Pong in 1972. In the 70s and 80s, arcade games, which were
played on specialized platforms, became very popular. In the 80s
many of these games were rewritten to work on PCs. By the late
80s, multimedia support started the craze of PC gaming.

In 1992, the first famous 3D game, Wolfenstein 3D was released
by id Software (the name is written in lowercase). Instead of
controlling a two-dimensional character in a two-dimensional
environment, the player found himself in a realistic world where
he could actually see from the character's point of view.
Although Wolf 3D's graphics look cartoonish by today's standards,
it is a truly classic game.

1993 marked the actual start of the genre of 3D games, with id
Software releasing Doom, which is today considered one of the
best and most revolutionary PC games of all time. This was an
extraordinarily realistic game and still stands out today. The
technological advancements that id had made in such a short time
was amazing.

Doom and Doom II (1994), were followed by Duke Nukem 3D (1995,
3D Realms Inc.), and the landmark id Software releases, Quake
(1996) and Quake II (1997), which were promptly voted Game of the
Year by almost every leading game magazine and website. The next
year saw the release of Valve Software's Half-Life, which had a
strong science-fiction storyline and many innovations that set it
apart from other 3D games. Many other first-person and
third-person games have been made, with the most recent ones
being Quake III Arena and it's add-on, Team Arena.

The innovations that these games have brought about are more
than just something intended for entertainment. The technologies
used in these games are something that exploit the latest
developments in computer graphics, networking, and artificial
intelligence.

Games like Quake III have optimized network code that
allows one to play in a multiplayer game with others over
the internet. Client-Server architecture is fully used
today.

id Software's latest developments in the field of
graphics (for their upcoming Doom game for 2002) were
used to demonstrate the power of nVidia's GeForce 3
graphics processor at the MacWorld Expo in Tokyo on Feb.
21, 2001.

Games now use artificially intelligent characters, such
as the ones you can talk and interact with in Half-Life,
or the lethal bots in Quake III.

This is a picture from the 1984
game Alley Cat by Bill Williams. 4-colour CGA is used.

Whereas in Wolfenstein 3D (1992,
id Software) we have a 3D view of the player's environment.